On Monday, waves of incoming freshman holding overnight bags and itineraries gathered at Case Hall for MSU's Academic Orientation Program - a two-day crash course helping them transition into college life.

Mary Beth Heeder, director of the MSU Orientation Office, said it's impossible to fully orient a student to college in a day and a half.

"It's a process that will go on in the first year," Heeder said.

At MSU, only new undergraduate students are required to attend AOP. At the program, new students meet with an academic adviser, plan a course schedule, enroll for classes and ask guides for advice on how to deal with problems or situations that might arise.

Being a student at MSU is more than just going to class, said biochemistry and Japanese junior Gary Moroni. He said he thought AOP guides were overly cautionary when they talked about issues such as studying and abiding by university rules.

"If anything, that would make people more nervous," said Moroni, adding that their advice came off as being a scare tactic. "It was obvious that those people didn't represent the general population up here."

The AOP program includes a skit in which employees act out common situations and consequences that incoming freshmen might encounter, such as alcohol use, excessive partying or studying too hard.

"We're offering different ends of the spectrum," said Melanie Wallace, a history senior and AOP director of staff. "We tell students that they don't have to be on one end or the other; most students exist somewhere in the middle."

When incoming freshman Mikel Klok walked into registration on Monday, he said he was bombarded by three different people giving him coupons for textbook stores on campus.

It was a lot for Klok, a recent Parchment High School graduate, to digest. He said he is too busy with other aspects of transitioning to college to waste time sorting through which bookstore is the best.

He said he just wanted someone to tell him where the best place was to buy books.

"I've been asking kids around who go here about the best places," Klok said. "They tipped me off to sites. Experience will bring that too, but to have an idea of where to start off would be good."

But due to contract guidelines, AOP employees aren't allowed to offer advice to incoming freshmen. Instead, they are to remain objective employees.

Heeder said AOP employees are allowed to speak from personal experience but aren't allowed to share any negative experiences they have had with, for example, a professor or a textbook store.

Klok's mother, Paula Klok of Kalamazoo, said she wanted her son to hear the absolute truth about the college experience.

"Who better to tell them than the kids who experienced it?" Paula Klok said.

But AOP guides weren't allowed to tell Klok where they found the cheapest books or about the professors they feared the most.

In fact, the AOP guides are subjected to a dress code that states an employee will be terminated if they show up to work with visible tattoos, baseball caps, dangling earrings, nose, lip and eyebrow rings, hair coloring, jeans, a short skirt or flip flops.

"We want to look as professional as possible," said Jeff Brenneman, a mathematics senior and AOP directing student coordinator. He added that the dress code helps the incoming students locate help.

Some students said the AOP employees shouldn't have to wear uniforms.

"I don't think it's necessary because a lot of students would relate more to someone who dressed more like them," said 2005 graduate Laura Bonucchi.

Amy Davis can be reached at davisam8@msu.edu. Staff writer Bob Darrow contributed to this report.